HalfBlood Days: The Heart of Bows and Arrows
by minniemomo
Summary: Follow Rebecca, a thirteen year-old girl with a dissabled leg, as she makes her way to Camp Half-Blood and finds her place there. This takes place in the weeks after Percy's sixteenth birthday. Please read!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I walked back to the Cleveland apartment I shared with my aunt, dragging my bad leg behind me. The thin, yellow plastic bag with the half-gallon of cold milk thumped against my good one.

The heat of late August lingered over the city, creating a drowsy atmosphere. Everyone was wearing shorts except me, making me stick out like a sore thumb. I never wore anything that exposed my leg; it was too embarrassing.

I stopped in the small lobby of the apartment building, which was pretty much a foyer with a door, an elevator and a set of stairs. Looking around, I made sure my aunt wasn't around, then turned my back to the elevator and headed towards the stairs. I always did that when I was alone; I used the elevator when my aunt was with me to make her feel better.

I tried to ascend the stairs as lightly and silently as possible, which was difficult due to my poor leg. Using the railing, I pulled myself up to each step, and then swung my disabled leg around onto the step next to my good one. When I finally reached the top, I limped toward the door of my apartment and began to fumble with the keys.

My aunt was talking inside.

"-don't think it's time. She's not ready!"

Her Irish accent was heavy, the way it got when she was agitated and worried.

"Her birthday is next week," a man's voice replied. Dad's voice. "Rebecca will be thirteen. All of us promised to-"

"I understand that!" Aunt Shannon snapped. I flinched at the sharpness in her voice as I quietly opened the door and slid inside. It was rare for her to speak like that and when she did, it was scary.

My aunt must have realized how harsh she had sounded because she sighed as if she were exhausted. "I know you mean well," she said to my dad, "but how will she be treated? You know, with her leg..."

My face turned hot with embarrassment when she said that. Like a fox peeking out of its burrow, I poked my head into the living room to see their backs turned toward me. Good. The last thing I wanted was to interrupt their conversation. Then I'd never know what they were talking about.

"Rebby will be fine," my dad assured Aunt Shannon. Rebby was his nickname for me. In my opinion, it was a strange name, but when it came from his mouth it sounded awesome. "Shannon, what you're doing won't work forever. I know that you ask to be transferred at work often. But they'll catch up. To be honest, I'm surprised she hasn't encountered one yet."

"And it's possible she never will," Aunt Shannon countered. "What's the point of sending her there if there is no threat?"

"There will be threats," my dad responded, a little impatiently. Their talk was beginning to scare me. He made it sound like I was being stalked by blood-thirsty murderers. "It's only a matter of time. And, like I said, we promised him-"

"I get that. But I don't want to lose her, like I lost my sister."

There was a solemn and mournful moment of silence. She meant my mom, who had died when I was young. It seemed so long ago since her funeral, since I'd been living with my aunt that I could barely remember her. I only had fuzzy memories of her.

My dad broke the silence. "You'll lose her if you keep her," he said quietly. "Let her go. She'll be happy there. And safe. She won't be alone. She'll have siblings and…"

I didn't hear the rest of his sentence.

_Siblings._

I was thrown into immediate shock. A huge lump formed in my throat.

He had other kids. And I never knew.

The key ring slipped from my sweaty and numb fingers, hitting the floor with a jangle.

The conversation in the living room stopped abruptly.

"Siblings!" I said, outraged as they turned to see me standing in the entrance of the room. "You have other kids, and you never told me! Is that where you've been every other day of the year, raising a family?"

My dad opened his mouth to speak, but I intercepted the chance, staring directly into his shocked, blue eyes as I spoke. "You could have been honest! You're not my father! You're a liar!" And with that, I was out the front door at the speed of lightning.

Within the next minute, my dad and aunt recovered from their shock and were at the door, desperately calling me to come back.

But I was already gone.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi everyone. Here's Chapter 2. I hope you enjoy it! Also, at the bottom of the page there's a question about the chapter. If you can answer it in your reviews that would be great. I'll post the answer with the third chapter.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

I stormed down some odd block in rage. How could Dad do that to me? Why? Why couldn't he tell me that he had another family?

I looked up at a street sign. _Wow_, I thought. _I seriously ended up on Fred's street. That's just typical of me._

I decided to see if my friend returned home from New York. He always stayed with his grandparents there for most of the summer. He should be back by now.

I walked toward his apartment building and inside the alley that his window overlooked.

Fred, by the way, was my best friend. He was held back a few grades due to medical problems, so he towered over everyone else. Both of his legs were bent awkwardly from a childhood injury that didn't heal properly, so he understood what it was like to be handicapped like me.

I smiled at the sight of the fire escape ladder being down. The window was open as well. Yes! He was home!

I was about to call up to him when I heard a vicious growl behind me. I whirled around to see the biggest dog I've ever seen.

I was petrified of dogs. When I lived in Huston with my aunt, just after my mom died, our neighbor had a Chihuahua named Amigo. My neighbor, who was a few years older than me, was a good friend to me, but was horrible at giving names. The dog should have been called the Spanish word for evil instead of friend. The thing always yapped at the mailman, scaring him to death. It once chewed up my neighbor's mom's tool box and nearly took my hand off. I had to get countless stitches and hated dogs since then.

So seeing a dog made me nervous enough. But the hound being fifteen times my size and having razor sharp fangs and fiery red eyes multiplied my fear by a thousand times.

I stepped back from the beast. "Uh…"

The dog barked at me and pounced. I did the worst thing I could think of: scream.

I threw myself at the brick wall of the apartment building and grabbed the lid of a metal garbage can, using it like a shield.

Its claws sliced right through the metal.

I pushed the lid at the hound and ran toward the fire escape.

The hound's claws were stuck in the lid. It struggled to pull them out and gave up. It lunged for me again, with the sound of metal crashing with concrete ringing in my ears.

That's when I heard the eerie music.

I looked up to see Fred standing on the fire escape, playing furiously on some weird pipe instrument. He gave me one of those inside-joke winks, which I didn't get.

Then out of nowhere, grass began to poke through the cracks of the asphalt and grew around the paws of the canine with the rhythm of the music. Soon the dog was bound to the ground, struggling to get up.

Fred stopped playing the pipes. He pulled a baseball bat out of nowhere and tore of his jeans as he leaped at the beast.

Yes, he _literally_ tore off his jeans.

Immediately my face burned hot. I yelled his name, completely embarrassed.

He pounded the beast with his bat in mid-leap and it disintegrated into sand.

He stumbled as he landed, his feet making a loud clip-clop sound.

Only he didn't have feet. He had _hooves_.

I nearly fainted when I realized that his lower-half was covered with a heavy layer of dark brown fur.

"U-umm…" I stammered, pointing at his legs. He looked down at them and shrugged. He casually put his pants back on.

I just stared at him, dumb-founded. What I thought was a baseball bat melted into an old-fashioned club in his hand. He shoved his Boston Red- Sox baseball cap on his head, which had fallen off when he jumped off the fire escape, covering the little stubby horns that now poked of out of his black curly hair.

He grinned at me. "Hey Rebecca. What's up?"

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><p>Right, so here's the question: Who do you think was Rebecca's neighbor in Huston? As I wrote above, please leave your answers in your reviews. Thank you, and I'll try to post Chapter 3 as soon as I can.<p> 


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